Bihar: Maoist makes a plea to donate body for medical research

Just like veteran Marxist leader and former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, a senior Maoist leader, who is currently lodged in a Bihar jail has offered to donate his body for medical research.

Varanasi Subramaniam, a central committee member of Communist Party of India-Maoist, lodged at the special central jail Bhagalpur district, has expressed his willingness to donate his body for medical research.

"Subramaniam in a letter to us offered to donate his body for medical research," jail superintendent Jitendra Kumar told rediff.com over telephone on Thursday.

"If my memory is serves me, no Maoist has made such an offer before," a top police official said.

Kumar said that Maoist leader has made it categorically clear that he wanted to donate his body to a medical research institute only in West Bengal. Besides, he also wishes to donate his eyes.

"The eyes should be donated to anybody who requires them the most. But I shall be happy if my eyes are donated to a person belonging to the deprived section of the society," the letter written on August 23 says.

The jail superintendent has sent the copy of the letter to the inspector-general of police (prisons) office in Patna.

Subramaniam, 58, who hails from Andhra Pradesh's Prakasam district was arrested along with two central committee members, Vijay Kumar Arya and Pulendu Shekhar, from Katihar district on June 30 this year by a joint police team of the Special Task Force and the district police.

The Andhra Pradesh government had announced a cash reward of Rs 12 lakh for Subramaniam's capture.

Hundreds of Maoists including their top leaders have been lodged in Bihar's 54 jails. Some of them are from Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Jharhand, Chattisgarh, West Bengal and neighbouring Nepal.